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Definition — what does that mean?
What it costs on average to win one new customer: all marketing and sales costs in a period divided by the new customers won in it.
In Swedish: CAC (kundanskaffningskostnad)
CAC
What it costs on average to win one new customer: all marketing and sales costs in a period divided by the new customers won in it.
CAC=250
CAC equals 50,000 divided by 200, equals 250
You are given
Round to 2 decimals.
K is everything spent on marketing and sales in the period: advertising, salaries, tools, agencies. n is the number of new customers won in the same period. The result is an average: what one new customer cost once the whole effort is spread over all of them.
A quarter’s marketing and sales come to 50,000 and bring 200 new customers: CAC = 50,000 / 200 = 250. Had the same quarter brought 125 customers, the CAC would be 400.
The point of CAC, as against CPA, is that it counts everything. A campaign with a CPA of 40 looks cheap until the salaries of the people who ran it, the agency and the software are added to the numerator. Two companies reporting CAC are comparable only when they put the same things into K, so a report should say what is in it.
A CAC is judged against what a customer brings over the time they stay, the customer lifetime value. A customer worth 2,400 over their lifetime won for 250 is a ratio of 2,400 / 250 = 9.6; a customer worth 300 won for 250 barely pays for the winning. The ratio, and how long it takes a customer to pay back the CAC, are the two figures investors ask for.
Is CAC the same as CPA?
No. CPA is advertising cost per conversion, campaign by campaign. CAC is the whole cost of marketing and
sales per new customer, period by period.
What is the CAC payback period?
The months it takes a new customer’s gross profit to add up to the CAC. With 120 of gross profit a month
and a CAC of 250, it is a little over two months.
Should organic customers count in n?
A blended CAC counts every new customer; a paid CAC counts only those won through paid channels. Both
are used; say which.
| Solve for | Rearranged | With the numbers | Comes to |
|---|---|---|---|
| K | CACn | 250·200 | 50,000 |
| n | KCAC | 50,000250 | 200 |
| CAC | Kn | 50,000200 | 250 |
Last reviewed October 20, 2026 ·How pages are reviewed
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